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After the city announced last week it discovered 390 cases of measles in the Big Apple, including two pregnant women, growing concern about a disease that we had long believed almost completely eradicated.
Expectant mothers – with those who were vaccinated before 1989 and may not have been recalled – are particularly worried.
"We have seen a lot of [pregnant] Women who come with this worry … that their immunity has weakened over time, "said Dr. Ashley Roman, director of maternal and fetal medicine at NYU Langone, adding that the disease could result in early work and low birth weight.
In addition, she added, doctors can not administer the vaccine to pregnant women because it uses weakened live viruses to boost resistance to measles, as well as mumps and rubella.
Mothers at risk may receive a MMR booster after delivery, but their babies are not safe to receive the vaccine before 6 months of age.
Some go as far as quarantining their young families.
The new mother, Julia Erenkrantz, virtually isolated her 3-week-old son in his Columbus Circle apartment.
"My child only went twice to an indoor area other than our apartment since leaving the hospital, and that was returned to the pediatrician's office," said the 32-year-old girl, who plans to vaccinate her son as he turns 6 months.
Josh Young, who has a 12-week-old baby with fellow Broadway actor Emily Padgett, agrees.
"We will not take our daughter to the city, we do not take her on the train – it's just not worth it," said the 38-year-old resident of South Orange, in New Jersey.
Katie Franklin had assumed she could not catch measles. After all, the 32-year-old resident of Jersey City received the MMR vaccine when she was young.
She then heard testimony from other pregnant women her age who reported having blood tests after realizing that they might no longer be vaccinated against the disease.
"I do not know if I'm immune," said Franklin, three months pregnant.
Given her daily commute to Midtown for her computer work, she and her unborn child are at risk, she prefers to take the bus rather than the subway, hoping that it minimizes her exposure to congested spaces and poles and infested surfaces. germs.
"I do not know what effects [getting the measles] I could have on me or the fetus at this point, but it's very contagious, "Franklin told the Post. "It's really scary."
This after the city's health department increased its confirmed caseload this week to 390, up from 374 just two days earlier.
In addition, the Centers for Disease Control stated that anyone who received a MMR vaccine injection before 1989 – and who would probably have received only one dose of the vaccine – should receive a booster injection, two injections now being recommended.
Physicians are telling people who can not get the MMR vaccine – pregnant women, newborns and people with severely weakened immune systems – to move away from overcrowded areas, neighborhoods with clustered epidemics (including Williamsburg and
Borough Park) and whoever coughs or looks sick.
But like all New Yorkers can tell you, living in the Big Apple is not always easy.
"What scares me the most is that people who choose not to vaccinate do not pay the consequences," Erenkrantz said. "It's their children, it's the vulnerable, it's the sick, it's the people around them."
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